Driver's Ed

Are you supposed to park next to the curb or on it?

Whose car is that anyway? Who's the family Taurus driver?

I thought those were only rental cars.

Indelible Gunk!!!

(click the pic to enlarge)

John, have you tried sulphuric acid on that garbage can?

Hola from Puerto Rico!

Inez and I just got back from a Puerto Rican vacation/wedding. It went swimmingly well.

The GrandparentsL watched our brood and now need a vacation of their own!

Anne's New Mutts

Even though I banned future "pet pics", people keep defiantly sending them to me.

Go ahead DrMark, send me some pics of your new gerbil litter. I am in a very charitable mood these days so I may post them for you.

Now for those of you more interested in HUMAN family members, here's a video of Christine.

Macie Pics Have Arrived

What a little angel!!!

Macie was born 6 pounds 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

Name Correction

Katie's baby girl is named Macie, not "Marcy".

That's the thing about people in Massachusetts. They don't pronounce R's that they are supposed to, meanwhile they add R's in where they don't belong. (Thank you Vanda!)

Of course the proud(?) parents haven't helped; still no pics or even an email with the details spelled out.

By Popular Demand....More MaddyTay

Oh, wait....That last pic is of Christine. Here it is from last June right at the bottom of this page.

Gee Maggie and Ryan, I wonder what NanaL will wear when she first visits your baby!!!

MaddyTay

Stork Lands in Michigan

A baby girl was born to the F's, Cathy and Dan, by C-section today. Baby MadisonTaylor and parents are doing well.

She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 ounces.

They must have changed the name from "Meadow" at the last minute...

How should we consolidate the little angel's name on the blog, MaddyTay? MadTay?

Congrats to all parties.

The cheap grandparents are driving out tomorrow (roundtrip 1300 miles).

Katie Births A Girl

But we all knew a girl was coming (remember, she "found out").

I believe the name is Marcy Elizabeth and she came in just under 7 pounds.

We'll have to wait for a pic and more details.

Who would dare have a baby on this already holy day of June 4th? There isn't any room on the calendar!!!

Congrats and all the best.

SPECIAL DAY

Today is Dan's birthday, so it's a good day to tell him how much fun the blog is and how we all appreciate his hard work. I'd even post his picture if I could figure out how.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOGMEISTER!

Starting off young?

Came home early from work the other day to see what Devin was doing. And we wonder why he is always smiling.

Fetus Update

Hi Dan,

I hope you and the family are enjoying the nice long weekend. I wanted to share some news and maybe you can put it on the blog. I had an ultrasound on Friday and we found out that we are having a baby GIRL! Everything looks great; Mark and I are really excited!

Just thought I would share, I don't have the ultrasound pics online, but they pretty much all look the same anyway, ha.

Have a great weekend.

:) Liz


Hah! It never fails. The impatient shall be deprived of sons...

Inez didn't check her first and got LittleJohn (whose foot is pictured above). She found out for kid #2 and got a girl (DrMark, her name is Christine. She'd love to meet you!)

CathyF found out and was granted "Meadow".

MaggieS was also impatient and is having a girl.

MoMerk never checked the gender and was rewarded with three boys.

El Doctor Marco

DrMark sent a note about his most recent vacation.



But my spanish still sucks!!
Just a quick note from Quito. I'm back from the Amazon without any anaconda or piranha encounters and it was far from the rough experience I was expecting. A bit humid and warm (not hot at all), very few misquitos, no head on a stick cannibalistic locals and unfortunately very little advancement in my spanish speaking skills. But a wonderful time with great food, good weather and a wonderful helpful staff... we (9 of us.. 2 docs, the 1 NP leading the group and 6 other volunteers for the medical mission stayed at the yuturi lodge www.yuturilodge.com --I believe-- for 5 nights in the amazon, did 3 days of clinic ( a couple malaria cases and 1 leishmaniasis but that's it for tropical medicine other than what we see in america minus no hypertension or diabetes at all!!) did a couple of amazon walks and canoe rides (saw howler monkeys, toucans, "stinky turkeys", iguanas, congo and leaf cutter ants, and many birds, butterflies, humingbirds, etc plus had the experience of swinging like tarzan from a vine - no it did not break under my weight - eating live ants off the vine (tastes like chicken..... actually lemon in a freaky sort of I won't try that again sort of way), and all and all had a great time. After a 1 night stay at a 12000ft natural spring spa kicking back, i'm back in quito, waiting for maura and have 2 days before the galapagos and other side trips in ecuador. Taking tons of pictures, have plenty of stories, and hope to talk to you all soon...
south america es muy bonita and very easy to do!!!
hope all is well
love,
mark

Baby W-A Update

KatiaWA sent these nice pics in.

I wonder if aunthood will inspire Louise towards maternity...

Other news from the W clan is that Dave and Sheila are moving to the St. Petersburg area - so they will be (temporarily) near Anne and Wayne's place.

Trash Can Update

Baby F Update

The inside word is that young girl will be named Meadow Contessa F

Sorry Folks

I have been real busy. Inez and I just bid on a house in Hingham - the seller essentially gave us the bird.

Y'all see why we need more contributers? When I am on injured reserve, this blog withers. Here are a few videos that I had laying around.









I captioned that last video, "The Ugliest Shirt in the Galaxy".

There's a ton of family stuff going on. Liz is pregnant. KatieWA and CathyF are due with their babies in a few weeks. Ryan has set a record for most baby books read by a prospective father. Also DrMark bought a condo. And for purposes of illustration I would like to provide historical context for his timing.



(Click that chart to enlarge. All of you first time home buyers need to be aware of this graphic.)

If you look to the upper right of that chart, that is DrMark's entry point. In fact, his purchase made Inez and I even more nervous about buying a home. Because of him, we made a really cheap bid and consequently stirred the seller's middle finger to action.

Would you believe that it's the first time anyone has ever given me the middle finger?

TIME TO CATCH UP WITH FAMILY NEWS

My biggest challenge was trying to sign up with the new Google to post to the blog, but Dan will most likely still be called on to post my pictures. First, our lovely Jen has a new job. She is spending a lot of time travelling but this time looking for kids shoes and not furniture. Our lovely Sarah is looking for a home with Pete. If there is ever a lull in conversation at a family gathering mention this to Dad/Grandpa. Just don't do it at my family dinners or you will never get invited back.
We all got to meet Devin at Easter. He is so cute and even tempered. The Easter Bunny arrived and Brendan made sure he was safely in his fathers arms. Lizzie, both Marks, Sarah, the N.J. gang and the "aunties" and the guys all had a great time at Vanda's.
All these kids at Vanda's reminded us that we will have 3 more in a few months. Maggie and Cathy came home for a shower hosted by Inez. It was wonderful but I never got a decent picture of anyone, especially the guests of honor.
Wayne and I spent a few days in the Caico Islands.

Pics from the baby shower

March 17th

March 18th

March 19th

Devin Update

MoMerk writes,

Hey Dan - Here are some recent pictures of Devin as well as Brendan and Colin for the blog. Devin is a moose - he weighs around 15 pounds and is already in 12 month clothes! Craziness. He's a pretty mellow guy. Anyway he is looking forward to meeting some of his cousins this weekend. See you on Sat....Maureen

Well, he already weighs more than my 9 month old angel Christine. By the way, she is crawling now and has a few teeth as well.



I really hope Devin doesn't have the DrMark waddle gene.

Speaking of whom, DrMark boycotted Devin's baptism last weekend because he was snubbed as a godparent.

That's real grown-up.

American Idol?

First it was Chris Dautry...





And now Blake Lewis...





Meanwhile, UJ has a shirt in his closet that reads "American Idle". [seriously]

Beware of Hoarding

Junk Filled House Condemned by Town

Should anyone in our family be worried?



Above is a YouTube clip highly recommended by DrTom.

We should all just be happy that the otherwise complete Luddite is online and progressive enough to have been on YouTube. But I will say, that instead of emailing a link to me, he scribbled "senor wences" on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

Baby steps...

Family Dinner at Anne and Wayne's

Another wonderful dinner by Anne and Wayne!!!

Though last night's guests numbered above the average, the hosts didn't miss a beat. Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, fresh bread and wine - both bottled and boxed (for Vanda).

As usual, most of the blog content was provided by DrMark.

First, he was going to bring along his new girlfriend Lara but luckily one of his life coaches (KevinM) advised him against the foolish idea.

DrMark also announced he was condo shopping because he finds it tough to impress the ladies while being 35 years old and still having roommates. This of course means real estate has still got a long long way to fall.

As for DrMark's "burgeoning" personal obesity epidemic, he insists the blame is all on his "bad genes" and not the 11 hours a day that he sleeps. Really, he's just a few inches short for his weight; in his defense, he has slimmed down noticeably.



At Christmas I had to turn my camera to "panorama" to capture his full corpulence. But yesterday, from only 50 feet away, I could fit him in a vertical shot. Also, he seemed to be waddling with a lower amplitude - another positive sign.

Now as for the newest member of the extended family, Devin, the subject of godparents came up. Apparently DrMark was miffed that he was turned down or "passed over" for consideration AGAIN. Devin will actually share godparents with Brendan because of DrMark's heathenism. I guess worshipping trees and hybrid cars isn't enough to get a letter from a priest saying one is a "Catholic in good-standing".

The good doctor waxed curious about the whole godparent criteria, "I thought it was just a position of social-standing..." Perhaps he has watched one too many Mafia movies?

It turns out, that DrMark already is a godparent to a child of one of his high school classmates. But the funny thing is, he doesn't even remember the poor child's name!!! (this is no joke)

Lastly, due to space limits on the world wide web, DrMark also announced that he played golf in Hawaii and SHOT A 119.

Also I have finally received these fetal pics from KatieWA,



Thumb-sucking above and smooshed face below.



KatieWA writes,

Due Date is June 5th, And dont hold your breath for the pic of the fat belly.

I heard she was up to a size 2 already - but that is unconfirmed.

One other item, Grandpa bowled his age the other day, 93. Way to go Grandpa!!!

For reference, remember that TimL bowled a 20 in December.

Now, some unnamed killjoy suggested that everybody (me?) stop picking on DrMark.

My retort,

It's okay because he has VERY THICK SKIN.

Another Family Fetus

Congrats to Maggie and Ryan!!!

This is a high tech "4D sonogram". How is "4D" possible? I thought that was just a bra size...

Even at this early stage they can determine the gender from a "lack of evidence" - I think.

The baby girl is due August 1st.

All the best.

Big Props to DrMark

So far it's the funniest event of the year!!!

When the card came (postmarked January 4th) I thought it had to be a record in holiday card tardiness. But the warm and funny greeting atoned in a big way. Would "Merry Christmas" have offended somebody?

I don't know about everyone else, but after his best man speech, I had thought that DrMark may have donated his funny bone to one of those ridiculous charities or something. Lest I forget, his joke on UJ backfired at that wedding as well.

Anyway, it must be refreshing for him not being the victim for a change.

By the way, that pic was already on the World Wide Web, link. I need to mention that because I heard that MoMerk was upset over the card.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Get him back Kev and Mo!